Mount Prospect Historical Society

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HS Board

Porch Portraits

by Kiersten Cannizzaro

During the spring of 2020, in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, professional photographer Kiersten Cannizzaro offered free group photos via her photography Facebook page and the Mount Prospect Neighbors page. The response was amazing. About 80 families and even a number of businesses in Mount Prospect, Arlington Heights, Park Ridge, Chicago, Palatine, Elk Grove, Wheeling, Lake In The Hills, Elgin and Algonquin took her up on her offer!

“I had seen a clip on the news about other photographers doing porch portraits and I thought it was a great idea,” Cannizzaro explained. “I had seen how much restaurants in our area were struggling and thought I could do some shoots and ask people in return to order from local restaurants to help boost business. I thought this would be the perfect scenario to get me out of my four walls and interact with people at a safe distance and make people smile again (which makes my heart smile) while giving back to the local restaurant businesses that were needing business now more than ever.”

“And shortly after that, I learned Station 34 was donating meals to first responders so I started asking for donations and sending the money to Station 34 where Joe, the owner, was making and delivering meals to police stations, fire stations, hospitals, nursing homes, public works etc.”

“I started my career at Leo Burnett Advertising and there I was trained to always be looking for ways to promote a product or business, but this was really something different,” Cannizzaro said. “The pandemic brought out a lot of good in people. It made so many of us want to do something good; to make a difference; or to help in some way.”

“I’m not a doctor or in healthcare, so what good could I do?” she continued. “I can make people smile! So that is exactly what I did. I made people smile and then helped feed those that are helping take care of those who are sick. It felt good to do something nice for people and to make people feel better at a time when we all really weren’t feeling so great. Maybe I wasn’t saving lives, but I was saving a few smiles and that was just as good for me.”

Looking back on that time, Cannizzaro said that she has many wonderful memories of her photo shoots.  There were the graduates who didn’t get the big commencement pomp and circumstance; the first wedding anniversary when they shared their wedding cake; the baby announcements; and the First Communions with girls in their beautiful white dresses with gloves and boys in their suits, all growing up with such dignity and grace in these unprecedented times. “There were also lots of families with their proud service members, police officers, firemen, nurses, doctors, teachers, as well as the proud parents sending their sons and daughters off to the Army and Navy or off to college, all with tears streaming down their faces and beaming with pride.” 

“There were so many happy faces and goofy families who made the spring of 2020 a better spring overall,” she added.

Fred Braun

Food Photographer

Fred Braun of Mount Prospect spent much of the pandemic travelling from local restaurant to local restaurant, tasting and photographing their delicacies and specials and posting them on Facebook for followers to see and salivate over.

“I wanted to help promote local restaurants by more than word of mouth,” he explained. “I started by making sure to leave good reviews on Yelp, Google Reviews, etc. I didn’t know how many local residents used those reviews, so I decided to post on the Mount Prospect Neighbors page on Facebook. I knew that pictures would be worth more than words, so I made a point of taking a picture of the meal to include with each review.”

“I’m not sure exactly what gave me the idea to do this but it was probably the great meals I was having from our local restaurants, couple with the knowledge that they were really hurting for business due to the pandemic and ensuing restrictions,” Braun continued. “I was also sick of seeing all of the fighting and negativity on that page, so I figured that a few positive posts could only help with that.”

Braun said that he did not have a personal relationship with any local restaurant owners, although he knows a few casually. Instead, he is trying to review as many different restaurants as he can in an effort to help as many restaurants as possible.

He admits that he has not kept track of how many restaurants he has reviewed on social media but that it has been more than a dozen. A couple of them have been located outside of Mount Prospect, but most have been within Village limits. In fact, he keeps a running list of those he still wants to visit and review.

“A couple of the owners have commented about how much they appreciated the posts and that has been great,” Braun said. “My favorite, however, is when a neighbor posts that my review inspired them to visit a restaurant and even try the dish that I ordered. That is the best because that is my goal.”

“Reviewing the restaurants has been fun and seems to really be helping the restaurants, so that is awesome,” he added.

Sample post: Hello Neighbors! This frigid edition of Fred’s Featured Feast calls for soup! 

Everyone knows Olympus Gyros has delicious gyros, burgers, hot dogs, etc. What many people might not know is how good their beef barley soup is! Yum! Perfect for this cold weather! 

Another lesser-known item is their chicken taco! It is serious one of the best chicken tacos I’ve ever had! It comes with lettuce, tomatoes and cheese, so if you want cilantro and onions (like I do!) be sure to ask for it. There is no charge, but you do need to let them know. The three-taco dinner comes with rice and beans.

Next time you crave soup or chicken tacos, keep Olympus on your radar!